Hi there. I just downloaded Audacity and want to use it. I have an old laptop that didn’t come with a mic (very annoying, trust me), so I bought a web cam to Skype with, which also has a mic. Can I use this to record? When I hit the record button on Audacity 2.0.2, I get an error message that says “Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and project sample rate.” Is this because I can’t record with the webcam mic, or…? And, why shouldn’t I be able to record with this? It is a mic, after all… Thanks!!
Our Logitech webcams show up on the Sound Device listings of our computers as an available microphone. You may need to find it in Windows Control Panels and select it there before you launch Audacity. Also, sometimes you need to reset Audacity sound preferences to 44100, 16-bit, Stereo.
After you do both of those things (in that order), try to select the webcam in the Audacity Preferences > Devices, or the Device Toolbar.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/device_toolbar.html
Koz
This works with some web cams but not all web cams.
If the device shows up as an available recording device in the Windows Sound settings, then you’re in business. If it does not show up even after “Show disabled devices” and “Show Disconnected Devices”, then it won’t work.
See here for more information about enabling audio devices: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer_Toolbar_Issues#vistacp